1. Field of the Invention
The disclosures herein generally relate to an apparatus, an authentication system, and an authentication method.
2. Description of the Related Art
A technology relating to external authentication such as OpenID is known as of recent years. In such external authentication, when a user uses a Web service, authentication is performed by using an account (e.g., user ID and password) of another Web service (i.e., external service). In such a technology, when the user uses the Web service on a Web browser, with the Web browser transiting to the external service, the authentication in the Web service is done using a result of the authentication obtained by using an account of such an external service.
In an image-forming apparatus, as another known technology, when a process that has been allowed by an external authentication server is completed, use of such a process is prohibited (e.g., see Japanese Patent No. 5277810).